Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Google Search Predicts the World Cup

Last week Google opened a new Google Trends Datastore. The datastore provides a great source of data for anyone interested in mapping search trends on Google.

Google has released their own map of recent search trends for soccer around the world. The Search Interest in Copa America vs. FIFA Women's World Cup map shows which countries searched the most for the Copa America and which countries searched more for the Women's World Cup on the 11th June. It also seems to have provided a pretty accurate prediction for which teams would do well in the World Cup.

Interestingly the countries which searched the most for the Womens' World Cup have turned out to be the strongest teams in the tournament. Of the nine teams still in the competition six of them (Japan, Germany, France, USA, Canada and Australia) are among the few countries which searched more for the Women's World Cup than for the Copa America.

The Copa America was searched for in far more countries. Searches for the Copa America, unsurprisingly, completely dominate in South and Central America.